I’m not a Virginia Tech grad, but several of my knitting friends are. They speak very fondly of their years in Blacksburg. In honor of the victims and their families, this will be my only post today and I will digress into a memory of another springtime college shooting.
During my senior year of college there was a shooting on campus where one student who recently graduated had shot another. It was very sad. The irony was that the only student I did not know was the victim himself. I knew his girlfriend, the shooter, and almost all the witnesses. Somehow, this incident brings back that spring very clearly for me. The weather conditions yesterday and today are very similar to the same dreariness giving way to clouds and sun. It was pretty much the same week and April as well if my memory serves me right. (Which it does. God bless the Internet for forever preserving his memory.)
I can remember the spot exactly, roped off, just beyond the little rise near the library into the math building. How I dreaded taking prospective students past it the following weekend for student recruitment, and the bombardment of questions. Having to explain that I had met the perpetrator and how he gave me the willies. Having to explain the entire situation and saying that it was an anomaly and precipitated by the relationship of the victim and killer.
One of the witnesses was friends with both parties and a friend of mine from our freshman year and from the on-campus Catholic community. That friend turned into a gun control advocate as part of his later work. I am so proud of him for turning this defining moment into a powerful motivator for positive change.
I hope Virginia Tech will survive this with its reputation intact. I hope for everyone on campus that they can heal without too much scarring. It surprises me that a decade or so later, I can still think of the incident and get weepy.
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These things break my heart and terrify me. What is going on? I purposely didn’t follow the story much today after I left for work… I can only take so much. I’ll check back in on it Wednesday.
It’s really sad that so many people died.
And I’m especially concerned because they’ve identified the shooter as Korean. I think it’s going to create a backlash because people are stubborn and pick up on this stuff and assume it’s all one ethnicity.
The facts are these, a 23 year old Korean-American male from Centreville, VA, graduate of an American high school, was the perpetrator of the Norris Hall shooting. It is unclear whether or not the West AJ dormitory shooting is related, though the ballistics testing shows the same weapon was used. Police at this time are unable to make a clear connection between the two incidents.
Backlash against Koreans for what? A single lunatic actor? He wasn’t some foreign agent. He was some disturbed kid who had profound problems relating to the world and from what I can tell needed major psychiatric attention. That could be the kid next door who carries the gene for schizophrenia and decides to go off Thorazine. I would not make hay about his citizenship status. He was here since he was 8. The guy was completely mental. Don’t sweat it. There’s no statement here about Koreans.
I couldn’t help my eyes getting watery watching this mess. I hate to see people suffer. = (
I think my phrasing was all off in trying to form a coherent thought. But what I was trying to point out was how this one guy creates a backlash for asians in general rather than koreans. a few years ago there was another student who had plotted to bomb a community college in the bay area only to have his efforts thrwarted by a longs drug clerk. gah, im not making any sense. my thoughts are all jumbled today.
but Hyphen Magazine has a forum going on …
http://www.hyphenmagazine.com/blog/archives/2007/04/some_thoughts_o.html
I am sad to say, there has been a lot of backlash against Asians and Koreans in particular, even in San Francisco. All you need to do is go to SFGate.com to read some of the ignorant comments.
One of the business schools I’ve applied to is located in more rural Virginia. I have been waitlisted but I think I had a good chance at getting in since I had recommendation letters from alums, etc. I say “had” because withdrew yesterday for the fear of retaliation against me based on my nationality. I have friends who are attending schools outside of this particular school and friends who grew up around that area, and I know that rural Virginia remains largely white, racist, and homophobic (sorry to make generalizations here, but read some of the stories on UVA and W&L). Maybe I am overreacting, but my family arrived in the States a day before Rodney King/LA Riots and I still remember fearing for my life when in certain areas.
I agree with you, Mapgirl, that his race and nationality shouldn’t be an issue, but many people (including the media) have made it so. The Korean community and the government had to apologize several times, although what kind of apology did we receive with the Oklahoma City bombing, which was committed by a white American citizen?
As much as race shouldn’t be an issue, it always will be.